With a shaking voice, she recalled that they all kept quiet and even turned their cell phones to ring silently. When Griffin was finally evacuated, the 62-year-old senior project manager of education with Save the Children USA in Kabul said she had to step over a woman's lifeless body. Militants throwing grenades and firing AK-47s stormed Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday evening, breaching heavy security and hunting down Westerners. At least six people were killed, including an American and a journalist from Norway. The coordinated assault at the Serena, including a thunderous suicide explosion, killed six people and could signal a new era of brazen Taliban attacks. "There was blood on the floor all the way to the kitchen. There was a lot of blood in the lobby," said Griffin, of Seattle, told The Associated Press. "There were empty shell casings outside." "Thank God I didn't get into the shower because then we heard gunfire, a lot of it. It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling," Griffin said. "We all just sat on the floor and got as far as we could from any glass. ... We turned our phones on silent."

Caption: A veiw of the main gate to the Serena Hotel in Kabul January 15, 2008. A commando-style suicide raid on Afghanistan's top hotel, frequented by foreigners and diplomats, shows a new method of Taliban attack aimed at soft civilian targets, diplomats and analysts said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani (AFGHANISTAN)

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Huddled in the gym locker room of the Hotel Serena with five other women, Suzanne Griffin, a 1967 Saint Mary's College graduate, could hear the explosions and gunfire -- so close that it chipped away the ceiling above her.

With a shaking voice, she recalled that they all kept quiet and even turned their cell phones to ring silently. When Griffin was finally evacuated, the 62-year-old senior project manager of education with Save the Children USA in Kabul said she had to step over a woman's lifeless body.

Militants throwing grenades and firing AK-47s stormed Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday evening, breaching heavy security and hunting down Westerners. At least six people were killed, including an American and a journalist from Norway.

The coordinated assault at the Serena, including a thunderous suicide explosion, killed six people and could signal a new era of brazen Taliban attacks.

"There was blood on the floor all the way to the kitchen. There was a lot of blood in the lobby," said Griffin, of Seattle, told The Associated Press. "There were empty shell casings outside."

"Thank God I didn't get into the shower because then we heard gunfire, a lot of it. It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling," Griffin said. "We all just sat on the floor and got as far as we could from any glass. ... We turned our phones on silent."

The assailants appeared to concentrate their assault on the Serena's gym and spa, where foreigners relax and work out at night, suggesting the militants had cased the hotel in advance.

The Taliban has targeted aid workers and civilian contractors with kidnappings and killings, but this was the most daring and sophisticated attack yet and was aimed at a prominent symbol of foreign presence in the country, apparently designed to point out the vulnerability of the Western presence.

Taliban attacks have typically targeted Western and Afghan government or security personnel, not Western civilians.

The multipronged assault began around 6 p.m., when the Norwegian Embassy was hosting a meeting at the Serena for visiting Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described Stoere as the target of the attack.

This week's attack was the deadliest direct attack on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, told AP that four militants with suicide vests attacked the hotel -- one bomber who detonated his explosives and three militants who threw grenades and fired guns. The claim could not be verified but came very soon after the attack. The bomber was not included among the count of the dead.

In Washington, two State Department officials said that one American citizen had been killed. The victim's identity was being withheld pending notification of relatives, the official said on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.

A reporter for the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet, identified as Carsten Thomassen, 38, died from wounds he sustained in the attack, according to the paper's Web site.

The 177-room Serena is a newly built luxury hotel frequently used by foreign embassies for meetings, parties and dinners. The nicest hotel in the city, visiting Westerners often stay, eat and work out there.

Griffin had contacted the U.S. Embassy, which told her to not open the door to the room unless she heard an American voice. U.S. soldiers evacuated her, she said.

Griffin last year received Saint Mary's Humanitas Award, an honor bestowed upon alumnae who have made significant contributions to the college or in their field of work. Griffin became a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan immediately after her graduation from college. She returned to Afghanistan in 1999 and has worked in other Asian countries.

Dodd vows to filibuster Surveillance ActSenator Chris Dodd vowed to filibuster the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that helped this administration violate the civil liberties of Americans. "It is time to say: No more. No more trampling on our Constitution. No more excusing those who violate the rule of law. These are fundamental, basic, eternal principles. They have been around, some of them, for as long as the Magna Carta. They are enduring. What they are not is temporary. And what we do not do in a time where our country is at risk is abandon them."

What is the greatest threat facing us now? "People will say it's terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing? I would approach this differently, in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out there - ones that we can take advantage of?" Read more.

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Story Source: South Bend Tribune

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